Category: How To

How to recruit coxswains

By readyallrow August 26, 2014

It’s that time of year again when teams are looking to recruit new walk-on rowers and coxswains. Advertising rowing itself tends to be fairly easy but coxing? Well, not so much. The simplest way to explain how to approach advertising coxswains is that you kinda have to have a “live by the sword, die by the sword” mentality going into it – the type of flier you create and the way you describe the team and the roles you’re looking to fill is going to dictate the type of people that show up to the meeting and that can either be a great thing or a really bad thing.

Trust me, I love a humorous advertisement as much as the next person but with coxing I feel like there’s a fine line that you have to avoid crossing if you don’t want to attract the wrong type of people (you know who I mean). For example, don’t say this:

“Are you small? Do you like telling people what to do? Are you obstinate, arrogant, and ruthless? Join us and we’ll treat you like a god.”

We all joke about coxswains having Napoleon complexes but have you ever actually met a coxswain that acts like that? If you have then you know it’s not a good thing so why would you create fliers asking for that kind of person to join your team, even if you’re just trying to be witty and humorous?

Here’s a couple tips for attracting coxswains to your program (and keeping them there):

Don’t try to reel people in just because you win a lot of races or anticipate winning a lot this year.

Winning isn’t everything. I mean yea, it’s cool, yaaay medals, but hopefully you’ve got a lot more to draw people in than just “we won more races this year than last year”. If that was the only thing you could offer me as to why I should join or continue I’d probably say “pass” and join something else.

Treat them like an athlete rather than part of the furniture

A Redditor said this and I cannot stress it enough. You’re likely pointing out all the things the rowers will get out of this (i.e. getting in shape, receiving stellar coaching from Coach McAwesome, etc.) but what can the coxswains expect to get?

Advertise something that gets to the core of what coxing is (such as leadership training, for example) and note that they too will receive excellent one-on-one coaching from whoever on your team is most well-versed in all things coxing (if you don’t have someone, a) hello get or train someone and b) come on, we’ve talked about this). Things like opportunities to learn about coaching via weekly rides in the launch with your coach or something like that could also be enticing.

Basically you want to make sure the people interested in coxing feel like they’re going to given the same amount of attention as the rowers, in addition to being valued just as much as the rowers.

Say what a coxswain is without being cliche or dumb

Things like “loud”, “short”, “like telling people what to do”, “chief motivator” (yea, I actually saw that once…), etc. are pretty “blech”. Most of you are in college so your vocabulary should be a bit more expansive than that. Consider getting a coxswain’s input on what they feel the most important qualities are for someone who wants to try it out and go from there. You can definitely say that a coxswain is someone who is a leader or wants to develop better leadership skills but be prepared to detail what kind of leader they are and the expectations your team has for anyone considering undertaking that role.

Follow through with what you advertise

This is probably the most important thing you can do if you want to retain the people you get to come out this fall. At your first interest meeting, make sure you spend an equal amount of time talking to the prospective coxswains as you do the prospective rowers. If you’re going to advertise that coxswains are equally important members of the crew, make sure you stand by that right from the start.

Here’s an example of a flier I made last week when I was talking with someone who asked for feedback on one they were making to try and attract new coxswains. I’m not saying its perfect or what every poster has to look like but it’s an example of something you could do if you’re struggling to get people to consider trying coxing.

Remember, the key to a good flyer is to have just enough white space to keep it from looking too crowded but not so much that the page is practically empty. Keep everything concise and to the point (just like a coxswain would!) but make sure you get across the important details too. You also want to have something that’s visually appealing so that it’ll catch their eye and make them want to read the rest of what’s on the page, hence the text on the photo.

When it comes to posting them around campus or handing them out, consider putting them up in strategic places rather than randomly up on a board in the student center where they’ll just blend in with all the other club sport, “roommates wanted”, off-campus bookstore, and 2-for-1 beer crawl posters. For example, think of the majors that require the students to possess strong leadership qualities or that aim to enhance them (business, political science, etc.) and post some near that department’s office.

If you know of any leadership organizations on campus, email their president and see if you could make a quick presentation at the beginning of their next meeting. Let them know the type of student you’re looking for and why you think their members might also be interested in coxing. Make it mutually beneficial and invite them to give one at your first team meeting too. At the beginning of the year I remember always having team and club presidents pitch their activities at the start of class and the ones that I was always the most interested in were the ones that actually put effort into learning/knowing who their audience was.

How To Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

By readyallrow June 1, 2014

Hey! This isn’t exactly about rowing but I was hoping you could help. So I have been emailing with a college coach a little bit and I am supposed to call him this week. The only thing is I get really nervous when I talk on the phone so I am really nervous about calling him. Do you have any advice about talking to college coaches on the phone? Thanks!

Trust me, I completely understand how you feel. I hate talking on the phone. It just makes me so uncomfortable. I’m always afraid that I’m not going to hear or understand what the other person says and I’ll have to ask them repeat to themselves or something and I’ll end up sounding really stupid. Since the majority of my rowing-related phone calls are for interviews, most of the tips below will probably have some kind of tie-in to that. For the most part job interviews and recruiting phone calls are pretty similar; the only things that would likely be different is the wording of some of the questions you ask.

Determine how much privacy you need to feel comfortable before, during, and after your call and schedule accordingly so that privacy is maximized and distractions are minimized.

When I schedule a phone call, the most important thing for me is making sure it’s at a time when I’ll be the only person home. Not only does this minimize the likelihood of being interrupted or having the person I’m talking to hear someone yelling across the house to someone else, it also ensures that I won’t have anyone bugging me afterwards about who I was talking to, what we were talking about, how’d it go, etc. Few things piss me off more than other people thinking they’re entitled to details just because you’re in the same area as them or they overheard part of your conversation. (Spoiler alert, you’re not.) I’m uncomfortable enough talking on the phone, I don’t want to finish it and immediately have someone question me on everything that was discussed or critique the responses they heard me give.

The other reason why I like to be totally alone is so that I can guarantee myself absolute silence. It helps a lot with the whole “being nervous about not being able to hear what they’re saying” thing. One time last summer I had a phone interview with someone and they unexpectedly called two hours before we were supposed to talk. Something had come up and they wanted to know if talking now was a possibility. I didn’t feel like I could say no so I said sure, now’s totally fine. Except it wasn’t – I was standing in the middle of a crowded street in Brooklyn where both privacy and silence were nonexistent. I had to walk a couple blocks before I was finally somewhere semi-quiet (or as semi-quiet as Brooklyn can get in the middle of the afternoon) but because I was still straining to hear what he was saying, I spent the entire phone call distracted and nervous. When I hung up a police officer that was standing nearby actually asked me if everything was OK because I was so visibly uncomfortable. Talk about awkward…

Make a list of 2-3 questions, plus any follow ups you know you’ll have.

You know they’re gonna ask you if you have any questions at the end and you know they’re gonna expect you to have at least one or two so you might as well write them down ahead of time. This makes the segue from conversation to Q&A much smoother since having it all right in front of you allows you to just read it out loud instead of fumbling with the wording in your head or spending half the conversation trying to come up with something to ask (been there, done both).

Whenever we get to that point in the conversation and the other person asks if I have any questions I usually say something like “I do actually, I’ve got a list of three that I put together last night. Two of them are important ones regarding _______ and _______ and the third is just a general question about _______.” The first two questions are always the same and the third is something that is unique to the program I’m interviewing with. The reason the first two are always the same is because I want to have some way of comparing all the programs I talk with so I can narrow down whether they’d potentially be a good fit or not. The reason I tell them that I have a list of questions that I put together last night, this morning, or whenever is because it shows I put time, effort, and thought into preparing for the phone call. Preparation is key and in situations like this it’s a great way to communicate how serious you are about whatever it is you’re interviewing for (be it a job, recruiting slot, etc.).

If you had some questions but they were all answered throughout your conversation, don’t freak out and think you have to scramble to come up with something just for the sake of asking a question. Usually if this happens to me I’ll respond to “do you have any questions” with “I did have a couple but you actually answered both of them when you were talking about _______ and _______.” If you have any follow-ups that you thought of while you were talking, feel free to bring those up but don’t be afraid to say that they already answered your questions. The biggest no-no though is not having any questions, period. If they ask you if you have any questions and you say “nope … *crickets*” then it can/will give them the impression that you weren’t that interested to begin with or you weren’t paying attention to anything they were saying during the 10, 15, 20+ minutes you were on the phone. I used to think it was so dumb that you had to ask questions at the end of a phone call like this but it actually does make sense when you think about it. They’re trying to learn more about you, you’re trying to learn more about them … how else can you do that than by asking questions?

Oh, one more pro tip … write your questions on a sheet of computer paper or something similarly sized in black permanent marker. Don’t use a fine-tip marker on a notebook-sized piece of paper or write your stuff in pencil on a hot pink Post-it – use something you’ll be able to see from across the room if necessary. Make sure it’s legible too. There’s nothing more embarrassing than scribbling down a question and then not being able to read it when it comes time to actually ask it. The reason I write my questions on a large sheet of paper is so that while we’re talking I can make notations on what’s being said, either in response to the question(s) I asked or just in general.

Go to the bathroom.

Don’t laugh, I’m totally serious. Last summer I had a phone interview scheduled for pretty much immediately after we were supposed to get off the water at Penn AC. It was hot as hell that day and I’d drank a ton of water that morning so naturally, I had to pee really, really bad. I got off the launch and started walking up to the the boathouse when my phone rang. Pretty sure I wasn’t even a step off the dock yet. For about half a second I struggled with “do I let it go to voicemail (and seem unprofessional/unprepared), go pee, and call him back” or “do I answer it and potentially not be able to pee for another 20 minutes”. I answered it and spent at least 3/4 of the phone call mentally cursing the hot temperatures, 32oz Nalgenes, and the fact that this was the ONLY coach who actually called right at the time he said he would. You wanna know what being nervous does to you when you have to pee? It makes you have to pee even more. Longest 20 minutes of my life.

Moral of the story: if you’re the one being called, don’t schedule phone interviews that coincide immediately with the end of practice and don’t drink anything 30 minutes or so beforehand if you have a small bladder. If you’re the one making the call, go to the bathroom right before, even if you feel like you don’t have to go. Trust me, some day you’ll remember this advice and you’ll thank me for it.

Spend a minute or two before you make the call (or five-ish minutes if you’re the one being called) to get prepared.

I usually give myself an extra few minutes if I’m the one expecting the call because very rarely do people ever call when they say they will and you never know if they’re going to be a few minutes early or late. I have a routine that I like to go through to relax and get myself focused that’s actually kinda similar to what I do on race day. I stretch (all I do is stand up and reach my hands up towards the ceiling and then roll out my shoulders to shake off some of the tension), sit on my couch, go through the questions I have, take a couple deep breaths, and remind myself that it’s just a phone call … I’m not launching rockets or anything so there’s really no reason to be nervous.

Give off an air of confidence, even if you’re nervous.

Fake it ’til you make it, right? Speak clearly with good diction and appropriate volume, ask direct questions, and actually engage in conversation. Don’t give one word responses or let the person you’re talking to control the conversation. During one of my in-person interviews the coach I was meeting with commented on how he could tell I was a coxswain over the phone because of how I spoke (clearly, concisely, with confidence, etc.) and it made me laugh because I admitted to him how uncomfortable talking on the phone makes me. He said he never would have guessed which actually helped a lot with future interviews because I recalled him saying that and that alone made me feel more sure of myself and less nervous overall.

Coxing Drills How To Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 31, 2014

Really quick question. How do you call switches between pairs/fours when you’re doing a pause drill. I find myself saying, “in two stern pair out, 5 and 6 in… uhm… I mean… just switch here” when they hit a pause and it’s awkward for me and my rowers. I don’t know what else to do though. Ideas?

Great question! I typically do one of two things:

The first is I’ll call for the switch while the rowers are on the pause. No “in two” or anything like that, I’ll just hold that pause a second longer and say “stern pair drop out, 5 and 6 in on this one … and row“. This is the quickest, simplest option and the one I do most often.

The second is really difficult to explain in writing without video or something to show you what I mean so hopefully this makes sense. For this one, I’ll do the usual “in two” thing and have the rowers switch on the pause. It’s essentially the same as the first option except you’re counting it out and giving them a bit more prep time to come in. This is usually how I call it:

“OK, let’s go two more pauses and we’ll have stern pair out and 5 and 6 in.
[Stroke]
[Pause hands away]
Row, that’s one… (said during the rest of the recovery)
[Stroke]
[Pause hands away]
Row, that’s two, on this next pause
[Stroke] stern pair out, 5/6 in (said on the drive)
[Pause] stern pair out…
Ready … row.”

The second one isn’t nearly as tough to call as it looks/sounds, it’s just tricky to explain without a visual. Since I’ve prepped them beforehand I very rarely have to tell them to switch on the last pause (where it says “stern pair out”) – they just do it because they know that’s when they’re supposed to come in/go out. Sometimes I’ll say this pair in or this pair out as a quick reminder but I never repeat the whole “X pair in, Y pair out” again because it takes too much time and, to be honest, I’ve already said it twice and adequately prepped you to come in. If you mess it up, it’s on you for not paying attention. After that switch on the pause though I will say “ready…” before continuing on with the drill, just to give the pair coming in an extra second to get situated.

You probably know this already but for those who don’t, one thing that is really important to establish early on is how you’re going to call the switches and when the rowers should come in. This can be something you determine with your coach (on land) or on your own but it needs to be communicated to the rowers so they know what’s going on. I pretty much called it how I wanted and adjusted as necessary when my coaches wanted to switch things up – their main concern was the rowers coming in on time and doing the drill properly so how I called the transitions wasn’t an issue as long as it was clear and easily understood by the rowers. When I was first starting out if it looked/sounded like things were getting a bit confusing they’d stop me and say “maybe try calling it this way and see if that makes it easier…”. I did that a couple of times until I figured out what worked best for me.

Anyways, if I know we’re doing pause drills that day then I’ll say something after we finish the warmup or right before we start the drill about how I’m going to call it, usually something like “OK so when we do the pause drills, this is how I’m going to call the switches. [Briefly summarize…] If you’re switching in then you should come in on the pause and then pause with everyone before I call ‘row’. (Basically you’re starting and ending the drill on the pause, regardless of whether you’re coming in or out – you don’t have to say this but sometimes it clarifies it if there’s still someone who doesn’t understand.) Everybody good?”. I usually only explain it in that much detail at the beginning of the season or if I’m with a boat I’m not used to coxing. Otherwise I’ll say something simple like “remember to switch on the pauses, listen for the call…”. Just make sure that whatever you do, you’re consistent. Don’t change things up mid-drill because that can/will confuse people.

Coxing How To Racing Rowing

How to Manage Your Race Day Warmups

By readyallrow May 20, 2014

The warmup that you do when heading to the starting line shouldn’t be that different from the regular routine you take your crew through during practice, rather it should just be a condensed version of what you typically do. I love long warmups but time restrictions and space constraints tend to make that pretty impossible, especially when you’re at a large regatta (like nationals, for example).

One of the things I learned early on is just because you’re launching 45 minutes before your scheduled race time does not mean that you’ll have enough time to go through your typical routine. I remember thinking before one of my first races as a freshman that I totally had time to do what I’d been doing at practice before eventually realizing that because we did so many arms, arms and body, and half-slide strokes, in addition to having to stop a couple times for the races coming down and crews stopped in front of us, that we hadn’t actually moved the boat that far up the course.

This meant that in order to get to the starting line on time and not miss our race, we had to haul ass for about 1000m, which probably took a bit of the edge off the rowers (for the sake of proving my point, let’s pretend it did) in addition to causing them to use more energy than they should have since we needed to row at a higher rate and pressure to get up there.

Here’s a couple things to remember about your warmup on race day:

Be mindful of the weather

This will definitely have an effect on what you can and can’t do. If it’s cold, raining, snowing, etc. you’ll want to make sure you’re keeping as many people moving as possible without letting them sit out for too long to avoid anyone getting too cold or stiff. This might mean rowing by all eight instead of sixes or cycling through the sixes every 10 strokes instead of every 20 before going to all eight. If you’re experiencing a crosswind or a strong headwind, rowing by anything less than sixes isn’t going to get you anywhere and will only end up slowing you down.

If it’s really hot out (particularly with minimal cloud cover), try to row up in the part of the warmup lane that is the most shaded. This will keep them out of the sun and in a slightly cooler area until it’s time to race. If there’s not a lot of shade, make sure you’re giving each pair a couple strokes out so they can get a drink or at least take a break since the sun can/will quickly deplete their energy and dehydrate them. You also don’t want to sit for too long in the staging area for those same reasons.

Keep the stroke rates reasonable

Something that I noticed about our lightweight 8+ today as I was watching their warmup was that it looked rushed. Not in terms of slide control but just in general – they were flying through each part of their warmup and it didn’t look like they were actually warming up. Instead it looked like they were just taking strokes to take strokes and that was it. When I take out a boat I very rarely let the stroke rate creep over 20spm at the beginning of practice, let alone on race day. The point is to get your muscles warmed up and get the crew in the swing of things, not to exert 1/4 of your energy reserves right off the bat. Unless you’re doing starts, keep the stroke rate around 18-20spm, 22spm at the highest if you must. And no, the excuse of “my stroke just can’t get it down that low” doesn’t fly because if you wanna be able to row fast, you’ve gotta be able to row slow. Figure it out.

Be aware of how much space you have

The warmup lanes are typically not that big. You might get lucky on some courses but the majority of the ones I’ve been on have about a lane and a half to two lanes worth of water for you to row in to get to the starting line. This usually isn’t that big of a deal because there’s always room to pass someone if you’re coming up on them but where it messes with your plans a bit is when you’re trying to get some starts in. If you’ve got a fair amount of open water between you and the crew in front of you then go for it, otherwise hold off until you’ve got at least two lengths of open to work with. Never do a start when you’re right beside someone or have little to no open water between the two of you.

If there’s a crew coming up behind you, ask their coxswain if they’d mind moving to [whichever side you want them to move to] once they pass you because you want to practice a start. I’ve done this plenty of times and have found that as long as you’re nice and communicate with them, you won’t have a problem. Unless you’re on one of those courses where the warmup area is huge, don’t try to do more than a start and five. You shouldn’t do more than that anyways because again, that’s energy and power you want to save for the race.

Be efficient

Don’t take more hard strokes or total strokes than you have to. Take as many strokes as you need to complete your warmup before going to all eight at a steady pace to get you the rest of the way to the staging area.

Pay attention to the time and manage it properly

Know how long your race warmup usually takes (this means run through it at practice a few times…), add in 3-5 minutes to account for having to stop for other crews, races that are coming down, quick water breaks, etc. and then subtract that time from the number of minutes you’re launching ahead of your race. This will give you an idea of how much time you have to play around with so that if you find you’re running ahead of or behind schedule, you can tweak things as necessary.

So, if you know your warmup usually takes around 11 minutes, you factor in about 4 minutes of “stoppage” time, plus the 5ish minutes that you’ll need for staging (getting lined up, locked on to the stake boats 2 minutes before the start, etc.), that adds up to around 20 minutes. If you launch on first call, which is usually 35- 40 minutes before your scheduled race time, that’ll leave you with about 15 minutes. Once your warmup is done, you can row by all eight the rest of the way to the starting line (let’s assume that takes 5-7 minutes) and then hang out up there with the other crews for the final few minutes before they call you up to the line for staging.

Make sure you have a watch (or your phone) with you so you can keep an eye on the time – do not be that coxswain that is asking their rowers, the officials, other coxswains, etc. what time it is or gets their crew to the start late. You look unprofessional and ultimately it’s disrespectful to the competition and officials. I don’t care if you’re a novice or a college varsity coxswain – get a watch. On the flip side, don’t be that crew that feels the need to be first to the starting area. You don’t get a prize for that and it more than likely means your rowers will spend more time sitting stationary than they should be, which can lead to them getting cold, tense, etc.

I usually start with a simple drill, like the pick drill by 6s on the square, and rotate through before picking it up all eight at steady state-ish pressure at 18-20spm-ish. My coaches liked to have us do quarter feather for awhile when we were rowing all eight but I only did that about half the time. (I’m not a fan.) Another thing I’ll do if we don’t have the time or room to do starts is I’ll do some quick builders while we’re rowing by all eight. Usually I’ll do one ten (with 3 to build) at roughly our starting SPM and another at base pace with about 10-15 strokes in between. I’ll also try to throw in 15 strokes at our sprinting pace, going “up 2 in 2” every 5 strokes. I’ll usually only do this after stopping for a quick break and asking the rowers how they feel and if they want to do this one. If we didn’t get much time to practice our sprint during the week we’ll do it, otherwise most of the time we’ll just pick it up all eight at a steady pace the rest of the way to the starting area.

One thing you have to remember is that you’ve got – GOT – to be flexible. Sometimes you’re not gonna have time to do part of your warmup and other times you’re going to have tons of time and/or space. Not having a lot of time doesn’t mean that you should rush, rush, rush through everything though because that accomplishes nothing – all it does is communicate a sense of frantic-ness that you don’t want the crew to be experiencing.

It’s your responsibility to keep them (and yourself, obviously) calm, cool, and relaxed. If you find yourself short on time for whatever reason, calmly communicate that to them as you’re coming out of the launching area and say “Alright guys, we’re not gonna have time to go through our usual routine so let’s go ahead and pick it up by all eight at an 18 on the quarter feather. This’ll be our warmup so let’s make sure we’re taking smooth strokes together and getting long at both ends to warmup the muscles.” It’s much smarter to eliminate things than to fly through them just for the sake of being able to say you did them.

This is where paying attention to the time is very important too. If you find yourself far enough up the course with a bit of time on your side now, go ahead and drop down to sixes for 10-15ish strokes each to give each pair a chance to make any necessary adjustments, grab a quick drink, etc. If you find yourself to still be behind schedule a bit, have the crew add just a bit of pressure to their strokes. I wouldn’t recommend having them row any more than 3/4 pressure max because, again, that’s energy they should/could be using during the race. (If you have to row all eight, full pressure to the starting line somebody somewhere screwed up big time.)

If you find yourself out there with tons of time, lengthen out your strokes a bit or throw in an extra 30 second break. If you normally row at an 18, row at 16 or row by 6s a little longer than you otherwise would. The goal here is to make sure you don’t go through your warmup at a normal pace and then find yourself sitting up at the starting line for 20 minutes instead of your usual 5-10. Resting for too long is just as bad as not resting for long enough because as I mentioned before, the rowers can get cold, stiff, dehydrated, fatigued, etc. depending on the conditions. I’m always jittery going to the starting line so getting there earlier than I needed to would only end up exacerbating my nerves and making me imagine every possible way that I could fail at getting into the stake boats (or something equally as dumb since backing into stake boats is pretty freakin’ easy after the first time or two).

To summarize, have a race day warmup plan that is a condensed version of your usual day-to-day warmup, be flexible and able to tweak things at a moments notice if/when necessary, and pay attention to the elements and know how to adjust if the conditions don’t allow you to follow your usual plan. Also, have a watch or timepiece of some kind so you don’t have to rely on your rowers or anyone else on the water to tell you what time it is.

Image via // @deutschlandachter

Coxing How To Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow May 12, 2014

I am coxing our V4 at regionals soon and realized that I have a lot of trouble coxing in bow loaders. I have trouble getting enough air in my lungs between words and feel like I can’t project my voice and can’t use my abs to cox. What would you recommend?

I’ve been waiting for someone to ask this – it seems like it would be a pretty standard problem with coxing bow loaders. Have you tried sitting up more? Obviously not so far up that you’re in your bow man’s way but just a little more than you have been? If you’re down so far that your chin is practically on your chest then that’ll definitely inhibit your ability to take in the amount of oxygen that you need, as well as decrease the range of motion you need to have in order to be able to contract your abs to help with projection.

Outside of strengthening your core (which will help a lot) I think experimenting with how you lay in the boat is going to be your best option. Talk with your bow man and let him/her know that that’s what you’re planning on doing over the next couple of practices and ask them to let you know if you’re sitting too far up and getting in their way (since doing so would affect their ability to lay back).

Coxing How To Q&A Racing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 2, 2014

I coxed a race last weekend and was told that while my coxing was good, it sounded more like a piece than an actual race. Can you give some tips on how to really up the intensity while coxing a race? I thought I was communicating a sense of urgency pretty well through my tone, but I’m not sure if it came across as well as I had hoped. Thanks! Your blog has been an absolute godsend since this is my first year coxing.

I’ve done that too, mainly during scrimmages or heats if we’re comfortably beating the other crew or already sitting in a qualifying position. I don’t think there’s anything wrong necessarily with coxing races like that but it obviously depends on the race and your crew. For me, I always talked to my crews and established that for any race but the final, if we were ahead by a large enough margin that we could afford to back off a bit, I was going to tone down my coxing to a steady state level and they would follow suit with their rowing. There’s obviously a lot of other things that go into this but the goal was to make sure we were leaving enough in the tanks for the finals so we could go hard for the entire piece, regardless of the margins. One of the things that I’ve worked hard on over the years is getting my crews to match the intensity of their strokes to the intensity of my voice (…or vice versa, I never really have figured out which one it is).

In the post linked above from a couple weeks ago I talked about the “coxing intensity scale” (which is now officially a real thing…) and where I usually fall on it depending on what we’re doing. “On the coxing intensity scale where 1 is your warmup and 10 is a race, I’m usually around a 6 (relaxed but focused tone) for the majority of each piece. I’ll bring it up to a 7.5-8 when calling 5s, 10s, and 20s though so that the rowers stay engaged and alert (and I don’t die of boredom) and then when it comes down to the last 6k, 2k, or whatever I’ll try to cox it like an actual race (somewhere between an 8.5 and a 9).” Think back to your most recent steady state piece during practice and rate yourself – where would you fall on that scale? Now think about your race. Rate yourself and then ask your crew to rate you. See how your numbers and their numbers compare to how you rated yourself during a steady state piece. This should give you a good comparison so you can get an idea of how the crew viewed your coxing during the race. I’ve definitely had races before where I thought I was coxing them really well and then we got off the water and they’ve said “you could have pushed us harder”. Talking to them though and getting feedback on how they interpreted my calls, my tone of voice, what they want/need, etc. was always the first step for me in the “do something different” process. Your first year or so of coxing is always a big test of your communication skills – the best thing you can do for yourself if you think your coxing didn’t come across as intended is to find out why.

When you put all of that stuff together, that’s what will help increase the intensity of your pieces. Intensity isn’t just about being loud or being aggressive. If “intensity” were a tangible object, like an onion or something, your volume and tone would only be the two outermost layers. Underneath all of that are the calls you’ve created, the “insider knowledge” on each of your rowers, what you know about technique, strategy, etc., in addition to all the other skills you’ve been practicing. When you combine all of that with a more-aggressive-and-at-times-louder-than-usual tone, that is what creates a sense of intensity in the boat. For more on that, definitely check out the posts in the “tone of voice” tag.

Also check out the post linked above. Although the question that was being asked is the opposite of what you’re asking, what I said in my reply definitely applies here. Another thing that really helps with the intensity during races (or any hard piece) is making sure you’re projecting your voice rather than just yelling. Listen to some recordings too – there are some great examples of what “good” intensity in the majority of the ones I’ve posted.

Coxing How To Racing Teammates & Coaches

How to cox a seat race

By readyallrow April 1, 2014

I’ve talked a bit about seat racing before but haven’t ever gone over how coxswains fit into the picture. Our role is very limited in what we’re allowed to do but at the same time we have the ability to drastically effect the outcome of a race, more often for the negative than the positive.

Seat racing day is usually one where tensions run very high for the rowers, especially when the seats being decided are for the top boat, a big regatta, etc. The number one responsibility of the coxswain is to be impartial and ensure that the races are run fairly. The coaches and rowers (most especially the rowers…) rely on us to not overstep our boundaries or give anyone an unfair advantage over another rower and it’s our job to put personal preferences, friendships, etc. aside and let the rowers determine who wins the seat.

Related: Words

There are a lot of factors that go into seat racing but this post is just about the responsibilities of the coxswain on race day.

Things you SHOULD do

DO meet with the coach(es) before practice to go over the logistics for the day. Have your notebook handy so you can write down whatever instructions the coaches give you. The most important details you need to find out are what the warm up is (it may or may not be different than your usual one but whatever it is, both coxswains must do the same exact thing), where you’ll be meeting to start the piece, and the starting time of the first race. You should treat this like any regular race day where you have to be locked onto your stake boat 2 minutes prior to your race. Don’t put yourself (or your crew) in a position where you have to frantically get up to the starting line.

DO find out how the lane-switching will work. Typically you switch back and forth so that each crew has an equal opportunity to race in both lanes – consider this nothing more than quality control to ensure the fairness of each piece. It’s important for you to know what lane you’ll be starting in and which one you’ll be switching into at the end of each piece and then for you to actually do that before you get to the starting line.

DO know the length of the rest time following each piece and what the centers are. Centers are the amount of time between the starting time of each race. For example, if your coach says that you’ll be running on 30 minute centers starting at 2:30pm, that means the first race is at 2:30pm, the second is at 3pm, the third at 3:30pm, etc. Assuming you’re doing 1000m pieces that take four minutes to do, that means the amount of time you have between when you finish your race and when you need to be back up at the starting line to begin the next one is 26 minutes. At the end of each piece there will be a rest period where you’ll weight enough and the rowers can get water and make their switches. You (ideally) won’t know who is switching in and out until the coaches tell you but in the grand scheme of things, that’s irrelevant. All you need to do is keep an eye on the time.

DO be quick and efficient about pulling the boats together so the rowers can switch boats. If this isn’t something you’ve done before, try practicing it with another coxswain if you find yourselves sitting around not doing anything while you wait for your coach to get out. It’s really not that hard to do but you can’t spend five minutes trying to do it either. The easiest way to do it is for you to gently point your bow towards the other crew and the row over to them (lightly by pairs). Stop when the bow pairs oars are close enough to the stern pair of the other crew that they can reach out, grab the blade, and pass it back to their bow pair. The two crews can then lift their oars up and pull them across the shells to bring the boats together. Check out the video below of some UCLA fours seat racing to see how the coxswains bring the crews together. (If it doesn’t start automatically, skip ahead to the 7:00 mark.)

DO carry your notebook, pen/pencil, wrench, some spare band aids, and maybe some extra spacers out on the boat with you, just in case. If it’s a particularly hot day, also consider carrying a spare water bottle with you to give to the rowers if they run out.

DO know what you are and aren’t allowed to say. 99.999999999% of the time, coxswains aren’t (and shouldn’t be) allowed to say anything more than the stroke rate and the time/distance. If during a normal sprint racing you are talking 98% of the time, during a seat race you should be silent 98% of the time. When I’ve coxed seat races I would tell the crew the stroke rate every 30-45 seconds, point out 250, 500m, and 750m, and let the crew know the time (i.e. 1 minute down, 2 minutes down, etc.). All of that was regulated by the coach too – I didn’t just randomly decide to say those things or when to say them, I was told to give that information and only that information at specific times during the piece (usually 1000m pieces). You cannot cox them at all. No motivation, no technique, no moves, nothing. In the boat, the most important thing you have to stay on top of is making sure the stroke rate stays consistent and doesn’t surpass whatever cap the coach has given you. If the cap is no lower than 28spm and no higher than 30spm, it’s your job to communicate with your stroke if he/she is under or over that. The only thing you can do to get the stroke rate back in that range if it’s outside of it is to keep reading off the numbers until they get it where it needs to be. You can’t cox or coach them on how to get it there. (In any other situation you should not do this. Seat racing is the only time when reading off stroke rates like this is OK.)

DO write down the times/stroke rates from your cox box during the rest period if your coach asks you to.

DO consult with the coach at the end of practice to go over the results. Be objective with what you say too – remember, your number one responsibility is to ensure the fairness of the races. Give them feedback on how each boat moved with the addition and removal of each of the rowers and also let them know if anything happened that might have effected the outcome. This includes steering issues (i.e. having to steer to avoid hitting a log in the water, just steering poorly on that piece, etc.), a crew rowing outside the rate cap, not being even at the start, etc. If you steered poorly you must be honest about it and say that you didn’t hold a good point on the third piece so that the coach can factor that into the results if necessary. If your crew lost a close race but you fail to mention that you also steered an entire lane off of where you should have been, you might have just cost that rower their seat in the boat.

DO steer straight and stay in your lane. This is a great opportunity for you to really focus on holding and maintaining a point in a race situation because you’re going to spend the majority of the piece not talking, thus you have little to nothing to distract you.

DO communicate with the other coxswain(s). This is important on a normal day but it’s even more important when you’re seat racing. Keep the crews together, start your warm ups together, etc. There are few things more irritating to a coach than telling his coxswains to stay together only to get out there and see one crew rowing up in lane 1 and the other rowing up in lane 5 or one crew three lengths ahead of the other. Another thing you need to communicate on is maintaining the spacing between the crews. If you’re in your own lanes and steering straight this shouldn’t be an issue but you need to get any issues like this squared away before you start rowing down to the starting line. Most of the time you just row into these pieces rather than taking a start, which means coming down to the starting line together so you can both cross the line together, at the same time, is critical. If the two crews don’t start at the same time then the validity of the piece is now in question. If you’re rowing down and see that your crew is half a length ahead with 100m to the line, don’t be a jerk and force the other crew to power it up just to get even with you. Either tell your crew to back off or throw in a pause or two until you’re even. If you’re the coxswain of the crew that’s down, do whatever you’ve gotta do to get your crew even. Call over to the other coxswain to lighten up and then get on your crew to pull you up next to them.

Things you SHOULDN’T do

DO NOT give the rowers any information about how they did, how the piece felt, where the boat finished, how the coach made his final decisions, etc. ever (unless the coach has given you expressed permission to do so … which they probably won’t). This includes on the water, after practice, next month, etc. Fair, objective, and impartial, remember? This means not giving the rowers any indication that they did better or worse than someone else. They can see where they finish, they know how the boat feels, thus they can come to their own conclusions on how they did. If the coach wants them to know any of that info then they can tell themselves when they let them know the final results. The bottom line is don’t say or do anything that could compromise the integrity of the practice.

Feel free to comment below with any do’s and/or don’ts that you think coxswains should know regarding seat racing that I might have missed.

Coxing How To Novice Racing Video of the Week

Video of the Week: Stake Boat Tips & Tricks

By readyallrow March 24, 2014

Getting into the stake boats at regattas isn’t that hard, provided you’ve practiced how to do it beforehand. If you try doing it for the first time at the start of your race, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Related: Racing skills: Pre-race prep

This video has a lot of good pointers on how to get into the stake boats so definitely check it out and share it with the younger coxswains on your team.

Coxing How To Q&A Rowing

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 13, 2014

Since were still waiting for the river to be ice-free, I’ve been thinking about what I need to work on when we get back on the water. I’ve decided that coxing steady state pieces are harder for me to cox. I think it’s because I don’t want to talk to much but I’m also scared of not saying enough or being too repetitive. Do you have advice for coxing steady state workouts?

The first thing you’ve gotta do is talk to your coach and figure out what he wants to do that day. If you go out with the intent of coxing a 4x2k like I’ve outlined it down below but then find out that that’s not what he wants to do or he doesn’t know that’s what you’ve got planned then both of you are gong to be thrown off, especially you. Always communicate ahead of time and say “I saw we were doing X today and I wanted to know if you wanted me to run the workout in a specific way or if it’s OK if I do my own thing with them” … and then give them an idea of how you’ve planned it out. Get their input and be flexible. More often than not over the years if I’ve asked to run it on my own I’ve been allowed and the coaches will only chime in if/when they’re seeing something that I’m not or can’t. It’s a good way to establish yourself in the boat and with the coaches so I encourage you guys to try that the next time you go out for a steady state row.

Steady state pieces, despite occasionally being boring, tend to be some of my favorite on-the-water workouts because there’s a lot of flexibility when it comes to how to cox the rowers. I think you also have to not be afraid to just be quiet. That’s one of the hard parts about coxing is learning when it’s appropriate/necessary for you to talk and when it’s appropriate/necessary for you to not talk.

If we’re doing a particularly long piece, like 30-45 minutes of low-rate rowing, there are periods where I won’t talk for 2-3 minutes, sometimes up to 5 minutes, at a time. This gives the rowers an opportunity to focus on themselves, their own technique, finding and maintaining a rhythm within the boat, etc. without me chirping in their ear. It also gives me a chance to focus on my steering (which I’m always working on, regardless of what the workout is) and the blades. I usually try to watch for basic technique stuff unless there’s something specific I’ve been told to watch for, but I also like to challenge myself a bit and look for things that are naturally tougher to see from the front vs. from the side (such as rowing it in, washing out, etc.). I also like to guess what the hands/bodies are doing based on what the blades look like.

Whenever we stop for a water break or to spin I’ll go through everything I saw and ask the rower or the coach if they noticed that they were dipping their hands, lunging, rowing it in, etc. and see if I was right with what I deduced in my head. It’s a weird game I play with myself but it’s helped me so much over the years. I practically taught myself everything I know about technique by doing this. I’ll also talk to the coach and say something like “I saw X happening with [rower’s] blade so do you think saying something like [call] would help or is there a better way to address that?” I like doing this on the water if I can vs. off the water and away from the rowers because it lets the rower I’m talking about hear directly from the coach what I could/should say in that situation so that when they hear it again, they’ll know what I’m referring to. I also think it makes me look good because it shows that I’m not just along for the ride and even though I’m not saying anything, my brain is laser focused on what’s happening in the boat. Making myself look good is low on my list of priorities but it’s still a priority.

One of the best ways to break up a long steady state session is to do something like what I detailed in the post up above, that way it’s organized and you’re not just making random calls and going through the motions with no objectives or goals. I usually only do this if we’re doing 2x30min, 3x20min, etc. but you could do it with distance pieces if you wanted. If we’re doing something like 3x6k, 4x2k, etc. then I’ll cox them a bit more like we’re doing an actual piece, if that makes sense, while still focusing on just a few specific things. I like to break each individual piece into smaller chunks (i.e. 1000m) and focus on one or two things before combining everything we worked on in all of the previous pieces in the final piece.

On the “coxing intensity scale” where 1 is talking normally to your crew between pieces and 10 is a race, I’m usually around a 6 (relaxed but focused tone) for the majority of whatever we’re doing. I’ll bring it up to a 7.5 when emphasizing a particular technical point during a drill or calling 5s, 10s, and 20s during steady state so that the rowers stay engaged and alert (and I don’t get bored). During steady state, when it comes down to the last thousand meters or two minutes or whatever I’ll try to cox it a little more intensely (somewhere between an 8.5 and a 9) to help them push through to the end.

What helps with avoiding repetition in your calls is knowing your crew, the things they do well/need to work on, and the individual tendencies of your rowers. This requires you to be actively paying attention to what they look like on the ergs, what their blades look like on the water, what your coach is saying to them, etc. Sit down with the coaches before practice too and pick their brains about the rowers and what they’re seeing from the launch. If you’re coxing experienced rowers that were with a different coxswain last year, talk to that coxswain and get any info from them that you can about their tendencies, the calls they made for them, etc. A pretty solid understanding of all aspects of technique is crucial too. You should also get input from the rowers about what they want to focus on that day. Don’t confuse that with giving them options though because that’s not what you’re doing. They should know based on the last few practices what they need to work on individually and/or as a crew. (It should go without saying but all of this should be written down in your notebook too.)

Coxing How To Q&A

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 11, 2014

Hey. So I took a boat on the water for the second time ever yesterday, and we hit a nasty cross-course wind that kept blowing me off my point. Every time I’d try to fix it, I’d end up on the other extreme of that point. Any advice for dealing with these kinds of winds?

Crosswinds are a huge pain. When you’re getting hit on the side like that while trying to establish your point, the key is to know exactly what you need to do and who you need to do it so that you can move quickly. The quicker you get your point and start rowing, the less time the wind has to throw you off.

When getting your point in a crosswind you do want to over-correct just a little bit so that when you start rowing the crosswind blows you straight. Once you’re actually rowing, assuming you’re rowing by 6s at the least and with an adequate amount of pressure, it should be fairly easy to maintain your point. When starting out, assuming I’m in a port-stroked boat and am trying to turn towards starboard (the side I’m getting hit on with the wind), I like to have 2-seat row and 7-seat back. It takes some of the pressure off of 2-seat so he doesn’t have to turn the boat himself and adds a bit of power via 7-seat to expedite the process. Having all eight rowers row and back at the same time is too much of a hassle and is going to contribute more pressure than you actually need. More is not better or faster in this situation.

To get perfectly straight would normally take about two strokes but since we’re getting hit on starboard, we want to over correct a bit so I’d probably take three. In certain circumstances I might take a fourth stroke, although I’ll usually tell them to make the last one an arms only or arms and bodies stroke since I don’t want to over–correct too much. Since I’m trying to over-correct a little bit though I want to shoot for one stroke past straight, meaning if I’m two strokes to starboard I want to correct so I’m one stroke to port. (Hopefully that’s not too confusing.) This will give me enough leeway so that when we start rowing I can either adjust with the rudder or just let the wind push me into being straight.

From here it’s all about using the rudder to stay straight. You can use the rowers to help you adjust if you need to by telling one side or the other to “gimme one hard stroke on this one” but you should do that sparingly since that can really mess up any drills or pieces you’re doing.